


Just Another Day

by lost_spook



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Classic Who companions are awesome, Community: tardis_gen, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-29
Updated: 2011-04-29
Packaged: 2017-10-18 19:17:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook/pseuds/lost_spook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's business as usual for Ian, Barbara, the Doctor and Vicki. You know, danger, imprisonment, escape...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Another Day

**Author's Note:**

> Written for starbells in the 2009 tardis_gen ficathon.

“Where’s Barbara?”

Vicki was sitting alone in a huddle under the twisted tree near to the Ship. She had tear-tracks running down her dusty cheeks and she gave a sniff as he reached her. “They arrested her. There was this _horrible_ man who was bullying his poor servant and -.”

“She’s been arrested?”

She nodded.

Ian sighed. He might have known he would finally get away himself only to find that one of the others was in trouble. “I’ll go and bring her back.”

“Ian, wait!” Vicki turned in wide-eyed alarm. “You can’t!”

He patted her shoulder. “I can. There’s a tunnel right through to the citadel. Jitrex showed me.”

“Yes, but the Doctor said -.”

Ian said, “We’ll be back before he is. You wait here and keep out of sight.”

“ _Oh_!” exploded Vicki as he sped back the way he had come, a world of frustration expressed in one syllable.

He smiled to himself and then put his mind to the more serious business of getting Barbara out of jail. It was an odd thing, wasn’t it, that two respectable schoolteachers were getting only too used to being put behind bars and, what was more, breaking out again? The head of Coal Hill would never have believed it.

He crept through the thick, alien undergrowth, back to the entrance of the tunnel his newfound friend had shown him. Unfortunately, since he had returned, someone had placed a guard there.

Ian watched from behind the wide-leaved, flowering bushes for some minutes, before deciding that it was no good sitting here like this. He was uneasily sure he had heard something else moving somewhere near and he had no idea what sort of fauna he might find on this planet. Knowing his luck, it would be something angry with claws and large teeth.

He quietly crouched down and found a stout stick. Then he crept forward, round the side of the solitary soldier until he was round the back of him.

He threw a handful of earth as far as he could. It rained through the foliage, pattering on the leaves, causing the guard to turned and move away. Not far enough, though. Ian gripped the stick and struck him across the back of the neck.

“Sorry,” he said, as the man fell to the ground. Odd how easy it was to get used to this sort of thing, too. “You didn’t leave me much choice.”

He knelt down, removing the young guard’s sword and made his way to the tunnel’s entrance, a stone slab incongruous among the trees.

*

He lowered himself down into the tunnel and used the stick to manoeuvre the cover back into place and then set off, wishing he had a torch. Instead, he kept his hands out in front of him warily and moved along as swiftly as he could manage.

As the walls smoothed into stone blocks rather than rock and earth, he walked more cautiously, knowing that the sound of his footsteps might give him away. The tunnel was a secret, but more than one of the inhabitants was aware of it and he didn’t want to end up joining Barbara in being incarcerated.

*

He reached the narrow stairs at the end and climbed downwards. Eventually, he reached the bottom and walked along, counting the few exits, knowing that he had to get this right or emerge somewhere awkward.

The third should be the one. He thought back over the hurried journey he had made a few hours previously and was sure of it. He listened cautiously, but there was no sound. Ian pushed on the stone and it slid aside, enough for him to clamber out into the gloom of the citadel’s dungeons.

Barbara appeared at the bars almost instantly. “Ian!” Then she gazed beyond him. “Look out!”

He twisted round, ducking out of the way in time to dodge the attack from the jailer who was fast approaching. He sprang back further, gripping his ‘borrowed’ sword and met his blow firmly. The other man was larger, but he was out of breath even from running across the room and Ian suspected he’d probably been drinking as well from the smell of it.

However, he couldn’t quite manage to move from the defensive – the jailor made up for his lack of skills with a furious and continuous onslaught, so he tried the rather underhand tactic of tripping him.

His opponent stumbled, but steadied himself against the damp stone walls and made a movement to renew his attack, but Ian got there first.

“Now,” said Ian, grinning with relief. “How about passing me those keys?”

*

“Now, quickly – this way!” he urged, tugging her along.

Barbara resisted. “But, Ian, I don’t think -.”

“Do you want to wait here until he brings everyone down here with his shouting?” asked Ian, with a nod to the man they’d locked in the cell.

She sighed and let him lead her on. “Oh, very well, but if you’d only let me explain -.”

“You got involved, as usual,” he said with a grin, as he helped her in through the square opening and pulled it shut behind them. “I suppose you couldn’t simply have kept quiet?”

She followed him, but her indignation was undiminished. “And I suppose you would have simply stood by and let that great oaf go on bullying that servant of his? He could have killed him!”

“I’d have -,” began Ian and then stopped, having to grin. She was probably right. “Look at us both,” he said, his amusement sounding in his voice. “Fugitives and criminals yet again. Still, I suppose as long as one of us is on hand to rescue the other when we land ourselves in trouble -.”

Barbara only said, “Hmm.”

“Well, you could at least manage a thank you.”

She paused. “Ian, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to have to tell you.”

“What?” he asked in confusion. “What now? Don’t say the Doctor’s gone and got himself into danger as well?”

Barbara was also trying not to laugh. “No, the opposite, really – although it wouldn’t be surprising, would it?”

“Then what is it?”

She pushed him onward. “The Doctor came and argued my case with the official. They’d gone away with him to sign the papers for my release – I was waiting for them to come back. So, you see, there was no need for you to go to such trouble -.”

“The Doctor -?”

“Had it all in hand. Well, you know how he is.”

Ian closed his eyes and groaned. “Why didn’t Vicki tell me?”

*

“I _tried_!” the teenager protested when they regrouped by the TARDIS. “You wouldn’t listen.”

Ian was honest enough to recognise the truth. He grimaced. “Sorry, Vicki.”

“Well, I’m glad to know that you were all so efficient in coming to my rescue,” Barbara put in hastily, pulling her cloak closer about her. “Perhaps we should leave before anything worse happens?”

Ian gave her a dark look. “Efficient?”

“After all, the Doctor’s plan might have failed -.”

The Doctor drew himself up. “Unlikely, my dear. Still, all’s well that ends well – and I’ve got all these foolish trinkets they would insist on giving me as payment when they found you had unaccountably disappeared out of your cell. Abducted by some ruffian, the guard said. I thought it was skulduggery on their part and insisted on inspecting the dungeons myself. Of course, I worked out what must have happened once I heard the jailor’s story.”

“Yes,” said Barbara, her voice a little unsteady. She didn’t dare look at Ian to see how he appreciated being described as ‘some ruffian’. “Now, shall we leave?”

Vicki nodded. “Yes, let’s. I’d like to try somewhere more interesting. This planet has far too many silly rules about what girls can and can’t do.”

“Hmm,” said the Doctor. “We shall see!”

They both disappeared inside, but Ian and Barbara hung back to exchange an amused glance.

“And you can be sure we will,” added Ian wryly.

“Ian,” she said. “Thank you.”

He gave her a rueful grin. “It’s the thought that counts, eh?”

“Something like that,” she told him, rewarding him with a warm smile as they passed through the doors of their unlikely vehicle and headed in search of a new adventure.


End file.
